


Worse Ways to Wake Up

by Castir



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, M/M, Multi, Sharing a Bed, Tieflings run warm, just a bit of calm quiet fluff for yall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-06-18 11:03:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15484350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Castir/pseuds/Castir
Summary: Cold weather is good for sleeping.





	Worse Ways to Wake Up

**Author's Note:**

> This was a precursor to/practice for a couple of other things I already posted, so if you've read my other CR fics you may notice the similarities. But hey, this is complete and its been a turbulent few episodes and a drop of normalcy goes a long way.  
> This has fewer passes of editing than my usual, so sorry in advance for any grammatical hiccups. I'm also about to be without my computer for a week, so if I can't get any wifi, i love you all, and thanks for stopping by :)

There were definitely worse ways to wake up.  
   
Like, for instance, at knifepoint. And that had even happened once or twice, so he could say with full certainty that it was awful. Another close contender: waking up to discover camp had been made unacceptably close to a nest of fire ants. There was also waking to a sudden rain storm when nobody had pitched a tent; waking because someone had tripped over him in the dark; and waking because the cart had hit a hole in the road causing the whole thing to lurch and have half its poorly secured contents land on top of him. All uniquely terrible to be sure.   
  
So really, Molly knew what he was talking about when the subject came up. And he knew there were many worse things than an overly cuddly bedmate startling him out of sleep. But it still didn’t mean he had to like it.   
  
He hadn’t thought it was going to be both his bedmates either. Which was a new and exciting development all its own—having two other people as sleeping company, just full of all sorts of surprises and new things to discover.   
  
Like for example, if given even half a chance, Fjord would roll over, wrap his arms around the closest body, and not let go until he woke in the morning. That he apparently did this completely unknowingly was a source of some amusement.   
  
At first Molly had thought it was just something he did with Caleb. As it turned out, it was much less exclusive than that and had more to do with who was closest and warmest. Caleb also more often wound up smushed between them in the center of the bed. When there was a bed. Fjord did the same thing when it was bedrolls in the dirt.   
  
This was the first time in a long while that Molly had wound up in that slot. And hazily he tried to remember how that had happened because he was rather sure he’d gone to sleep on the edge. He came back to himself a little more when Caleb wiggled deeper into his side. There was already so little room, it was ridiculous. It took him a second to realize that Caleb was shivering.  
  
The further north they had traveled the colder it got, and it really should have gone without saying. It didn’t bother Molly, his coat was warm and his boots kept his feet dry. And frankly, as a tiefling, his body temperature just tended warmer than most. Right. He should have seen this coming.   
  
Blearily opening his eyes to the ghostly pale light of still-not-quite-dawn, he found Caleb pressed up so close that an entire other person could likely join their sleeping arrangement unnoticed. He was shaking like a leaf in a stiff breeze, and it was no wonder; every article of clothing he owned was threadbare at best. Never mind at worst.   
  
Some time in the course of all the tossing and turning Caleb had done in the night (there was another discovery, albeit a less endearing one) the thick patchwork quilt he had claimed had slipped off the bedside leaving him with little else than the bed’s thin sheet to keep him warm. Which it wasn’t.  
  
Fjord’s arm was slung over them both, heavy in sleep, and not likely to move any time soon. Molly knew from experience that trying to slip out from beneath it would only cause him to reflexively tighten his hold. He’d spent one morning bored out of his skull for having tried and didn’t feel like doing so again.   
  
But that still left the matter of Caleb. And the urge to protect and look after him aside (the same one Molly pointedly avoiding giving a name to and would staunchly deny having in the first place if questioned), he knew he’d never get back to sleep if something wasn’t done to make him settle.   
  
Ah well. There wasn’t much else for it.   
  
He rather expected it when Caleb jerked awake in the face of the only solution Molly could offer. He was a light and anxious sleeper, and being kicked or jabbed with elbows enough times had given Molly a fairly good idea of where not to be when waking Caleb. So he was at least spared an accidental pummeling.   
  
“Gods, your feet are like ice, how do you live like this?” Molly grumbled, arms around the man’s waist, legs tangled up with his and pulling him in closer, both of them underneath the blanket that yet remained.   
  
The garbled, nonsense thing that didn’t have real words he got as a reply didn’t faze him. Molly took only enough time to tuck in the edges of the blanket and settle himself with Caleb’s head beneath his chin. He could picture the wild eyed surprise on the man’s face, he’d seen quite a lot of it by then, so it was a relief when he settled quickly. Still sleepy, and likely a lot more comfortable now that he wasn’t actively freezing.   
  
The thing he mumbled was stifled beneath the covers, and Molly felt it more than he heard it for how close Caleb was pressed against him. It might have been ‘thank you’ or it might have been more to the effect of ‘what’s going on’ but either way all Molly did was murmur,  
  
“Go back to sleep.” He rather wanted to do the same. The quicker Caleb went on ahead, the quicker he could follow.   
  
Quietly, sleepily, Caleb made a little hum to confirm he’d heard the instruction. Fjord’s arm tightened around them both and the great sigh he gave in his sleep hit the back of Molly’s neck and gave him chills. He felt it when Caleb smiled.   
  
Definitely worse ways to wake up. 


End file.
